Stocks and Bonds
by EricaX
Summary: It's one thing after another for poor Fenton. He's desperately trying to find time for his girlfriend Gandra, appease his employer Scrooge McDuck, and keep his identity as Gizmoduck a secret to the world as his finds himself with unwanted house guests and a sudden visit to the Klondike. With his feelings all over the place, Fenton isn't sure he can handle it all!


Stocks and Bonds

Chapter 1

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"Oh, Fenton!" gushed the soft and higher voice of Gandra Dee. She pushed a large lock of her long blonde hair behind her shoulder before clasping her hands together in happiness. "You really didn't have to go all out for me like this!"

Fenton Crackshell, ex-bean counter and now personal accountant to the world's richest duck, beamed at the praise. "Oh, Gandra, my sweetie, nothing is too much when it comes to you!"

The two of them were currently sitting in the middle of Duckburg park, a large red and white checkered blanket laid out before them with a large basket filled with food spread out on top. The blanket was laden with plates, real wine glasses, and forks and knives as well. It was quite an elegant picnic on the beautiful and sunny summer day they were enjoying.

Gandra sighed pleasantly, pulling down on the light blue dress she was wearing and tucking her legs underneath her. She reached for the large woven basket at the center of the blanket and lifted the lid before peering inside.

She gasped in excitement when she saw what was inside. "Oh, you remembered the black raspberry jam! It's my favorite!"

Fenton's smile couldn't get any bigger as he watched how excited she got as she continued to pull food out of the basket. Everything from chips to peanut butter sandwiches were inside.

"Of course, my love!" laughed Fenton. "Oh, and see!" He reached into the basket himself and pulled out some bottles of soda. "Even your favorite fizzy drinks!"

Gandra smiled knowingly and then smirked and nodded when the next thing she pulled out were long twisted swirly straws. "And of course, you packed your swirly straws" she admonished lovingly.

Fenton gave her a bashful shrug in reply. "No fizzy soda drink is complete without one in MY opinion!"

The two of them didn't waste any time in getting food on their plates and beginning to dig in on the picnic food. Several bites into their meal, Gandra spoke up. "So, tell me Fenton. What exactly is so special about today?"

Fenton blinked owlishly at her, a large chunk of peanut butter sandwich half hanging out of his mouth. "Huh?" he asked through his food.

Gandra opened up a container of watermelon and ate a piece before explaining, "You've been making such a fuss about how this picnic was so important and that everything had to be perfect for it. Makes a girl wonder what was so special about this particular picnic. This is far from the first picnic we've had together."

Fenton noisily gulped down the bite of sandwich and pulled at the loose yellow cotton shirt he was wearing. "W-well, you know me...I like everything to run perfect and smooth, my love!"

Gandra narrowed her eyes at him, though a smile was still on her beak. "What are you up to?"

Fenton frantically shook his head. "Nothing! I swear!" He laughed nervously. After being stared down by the love of his life for another moment, he caved. He made a small whimpering noise in the back of his throat before quickly saying, "Oh, you just know me too well, Gandra dear!"

Silence took over as Fenton picked at a loose thread on the corner of the blanket. He ran a hand nervously through his hair. "You see, my love...We-We've been dating for quite a while now and I've been thinking-"

Fenton opened his mouth to continue speaking when a soft jingle filled the air. The accountant blinked at the horribly and badly timed noise. Gandra and Fenton shared a confused look before Fenton dug further into his coat pocket to pull out his cell phone. He stared at it for a second and it vibrated and jangled its ringtone before he flipped open the cell phone to answer it.

"Uh...hello?"

"Fenton! Bless me bagpipes! I'm so glad yeh answered, laddie!" came Scrooge McDuck's accented voice on the other end of the phone.

"Mr. McDuck!?" chirped Fenton incredulously. His eyes turned to look at Gandra, who, upon hearing the billionaire's name, looked away with a roll of her eyes. He frowned and pulled harder at the thread now which began to cause a hole.

"Aye, lad. I need yeh t'come to me mansion immediately! I have quite the predicament and I'm afraid you're the only one who can help me!" said Scrooge on the other end.

Fenton nervously turned away so his back was facing Gandra as he said very quietly, "Does this require a certain somebody?" He tried not to say anything that would give him away while Gandra was present.

Scrooge sounded odd on the other end of the line. "Ya mean, Gizmoduck? No, no, laddie! Just come as yourself! I need yer help with me nephew!"

"Nephew? Which one? Huey, Dewey, or Louie? Did you forget which one is which again!? Cause I'll tell ya now, I haven't the slightest clue either!"

"What? Oh, no-Not that nephew-"

"Oh, did Donald make port then?" asked Fenton.

Scrooge gave an exasperated sigh."-Just come over immediately! I'm sort of at me wit's end, here."

Fenton nodded. "Uh...but Mr. McDuck-I'm kinda in the middle of something-" He looked past his shoulder and gave a little half-hearted wave to Gandra, who was now staring at their picnic as though it was covered in ants.

He wasn't sure the old miser had heard him though, for Fenton could suddenly hear voices on the other end of the line. Scrooge sounded quite worked up and at a complete loss, which was unusual for Fenton to hear. He figured something must be going on if Scrooge was acting the way he was.

"Mr. McDuck?" Fenton repeated over the phone.

Scrooge then stopped talking to the other person and said to Fenton, "Aye, thank yeh, laddie. I knew you'd help me! I expect yeh over here shortly!" The old duck told him distractedly.

"But Mr. McDuck , I just told you-" Before Fenton could get another word in, the click of the line told him that Scrooge had ended the call. The accountant just stared forlornly at his cell phone.

The sound of a plastic container being closed tightly shut brought Fenton back to reality. He turned to Gandra, who was now putting everything away and collecting the plates and silverware.

"What are you-" began Fenton, but Gandra cut him off.

"You have to go and help Mr. McDuck with whatever he needs you for, Fenton. I get it" she sighed.

Looking heart broken, Fenton reached over and grabbed her by the wrist. "I'm sorry, Gandra! You heard me on the phone. I tried to tell him I was the middle of something-"

Gandra pulled her hand out of his grip. "But he still insisted you go and you, being the faithful guy I know you to be, will go to his beck and call."

"Oh, Gandra, dearie" lamented Fenton. He scooted over to her as she crossed her arms and pouted. "You know I leave you unwillingly. You know I'll make it up to you, right?" He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

The bird's pout slowly eased away as a soft smile replaced it. "How do you always know just the right things to say?"

Fenton smiled, happy to see she wasn't near as upset with him anymore. "Just lucky, I guess."

He started helping her put things away but she stopped him. "Go, Fenton. You know I can't stay mad at you. I'll get all this and take it back to my house. You can stop by later for your basket and plates."

After several minutes of reassurances and long kisses, Gandra managed to convince him to leave and he quickly made his way to McDuck Manor.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

It didn't take long for Fenton to make his way to his destination and before he knew it, he was walking into the library, which was where Duckworth had told him Mr. McDuck was waiting for him. Fenton tepidly walked into the room covered with books, unsure of this was the right room. It was a mansion after all, and he found himself to be quite overwhelmed by the place. He'd never be able to live in such a large place. He'd get lost!

Seeing no sign of Scrooge anywhere once he was in the room, Fenton called out, "Mr. McDuck?"

"He's not in here" came a drawling voice.

Fenton jumped at the voice to his right; having thought he was alone in the large room. "GAH!" he cried out in alarm, ducking and using his arms to cover his face.

The voice chuckled. "Woah, now. No need to have a panic attack on MY behalf."

Fenton lowered his guard and looked to the source of the voice.

There in front of him, leaning on a table with an antique vase on it, was a man Fenton had never seen before. He wore an emerald green jacket with a yellow dress shirt underneath it. A matching hat sat perfectly nestled over top golden curls.

"Oh...Are you Donald?" Fenton found himself asking.

The man's eyebrows raised in mild surprise. "As in Donald Duck? Dear me, no. I can quite happily say I am most certainly NOT my unfortunately bitter cousin." Pulling up his coat and fixing the little black bow tie around his neck, the man offered his hand out. "My name is Gladstone Gander. You may have perhaps heard of me and my obscenely good luck!"

Fenton shook his head yet greeted him with a blank stare. "No...Afraid I haven't."

Gladstone's eyes widened briefly in surprise as he retracted his hand, but otherwise showed no other sign of offense. "Doesn't matter, I suppose. First time for everything, as they say."

"So, wait, you said you're Donald's cousin? So you're-"

"Also Scrooge's nephew? You guessed right, Mister..." he trailed off, waiting for Fenton to introduce himself.

"Oh!" squeaked Fenton. "Fenton Crackshell! But you can just call me Fenton! I'm Mr. McDuck's accountant!"

Gladstone's dark eyes lit up in recognition as he looked Fenton up and down. "Oh, Uncle said something about inviting his accountant over. I was only half listening though." Gladstone looked away candidly as though he wanted to be anywhere but in this library.

Fenton frowned at his comment but wasn't able to ask further for Scrooge walked through the door. "Ahhh, Fenton! It would seem you've already met Gladstone! Splendid!"

Fenton felt as though everything was happening around him at top spend for he was still unable to get a word in before Gladstone spoke up once again. "Uncle, I told you earlier, all of this is far from necessary. I am perfectly capable of staying in a hotel." He gave his uncle a dead stare. "Or...heaven forbid I stay in my uncle's large, perfectly accommodating mansion." This last sentence was added in quite tersely.

Scrooge practically turned green at the very concept. "Eh, no Gladstone. You know I don't handle house guests well and you ALSO know I refuse to spend money for a hotel. Besides, Mrs. Beakley has been planning on...eh...fumigating the bedrooms this week anyways..."

Gladstone said nothing, just stared blankly at his uncle, clearly unimpressed and clearly not believing a word.

"Umm...Someone mind telling me what's going on?" asked Fenton in a small voice.

Both duck and goose glanced to look at the flustered and very confused accountant.

Gladstone opened his mouth to speak but it was Scrooge who cut in. "It would seem that Gladstone will be staying in Duckburg for the unforeseeable future due to..." He turned and glared at Gladstone who looked up at the ceiling. "Lack of funds."

"My luck has always handled that sort of thing in the past! This is a fluke, I swear it!" swore Gladstone.

Scrooge groaned and rolled his eyes. "Because of my financially inept nephew, I am in need of your assistance. Gladstone will be needing a place to stay and I know you live with your mother in that trailer but haven't you mentioned before you have a spare bedroom?"

"No" deadpanned a highly worried and confused Fenton.

At the same time, Gladstone demanded, "Excuse me, did you just say 'trailer'?"

"Ahh, well" chuckled Scrooge out of nerves. "Certainly you can still find room for him though!"

Fenton looked between them uncertainly. "Wait, you want him to stay at my house?"

"Trailer. He said trailer. He definitely said trailer" mumbled Gladstone frantically as his bit at his fingertips.

"Why me?" was what the accountant wanted to know.

Scrooge gave him a big anxious smile. "Because you have yet to let me down with anything I've asked of yeh."

Fenton's eyes widened dramatically. "Pretty sure that wasn't your opinion when I dropped your entire fortune into that lake several years back..."

Scrooge patted him on the pat. "Bygones, laddie. No one's perfect" grumbled the old miser darkly.

Fenton leaned on a large red chair that was beside him. This was a lot to take in. Not twenty minutes ago he'd been sitting having a picnic with the love of his life and now here he was standing in front of his employer and being asked to let some stranger stay at his house for who knew how long!

"Uncle, please reconsider!" begged Gladstone. "This is NOT fair!"

Scrooge scowled at his words. "The world is far from fair, laddie. The faster you learn that, the better off you'll be! You rely entirely TOO MUCH on that luck of yours! You'd best be grateful I don't kick yeh out now without a place to stay at all!"

Gladstone crossed his arms, both of them having forgotten Fenton was still in the room. "I'm positive my luck would supply me of a much better place to stay than a TRAILER!"

The goose's words struck a cord with the accountant, who snapped out of his thoughts and looked to Gladstone with hurt and accusation. "HEYYY! I'll have you know my house is just as good as any other! It's a bit small and a bit messy and cluttered, but it works just fine!"

Having seen that he overstepped and hurt the other duck's feelings, Gladstone said nothing. He only looked remotely sorry though, much to Fenton's chagrin.

"You can stay with Ma'ma and me. I'll sleep on the couch and you can sleep in my room!" he conceded. He didn't want to, but Gladstone's comment almost made him WANT to have this unwanted house guest over. He wanted to prove to Gladstone that his home wasn't nearly as bad as he thought. "I know you don't WANT to stay with me, but like Mr. McDuck said, you're lucky he's helping you at all! And just so you know, dealing with you is the LAST thing I want to do right now! I'd be happy to get back to my date with my girlfriend, thank you very much! But instead I'm helping you!"

After a beat of awkward silence, Scrooge declared, "Well then, I'll have Duckworth get your bags together Gladstone and whenever he's ready the two of you can head over there to get settled." They both watched at the old miser walked out of the library to do just that.

"Yippee" sighed Gladstone sarcastically.

Fenton just took in a deep breath to control his annoyance.

"Hmmm, you sure bend over backwards for my Uncle Scrooge. Not even his own family bends that far backwards for him. Skipping out on adate just to help the old guy out?" commented Gladstone airily, though his expression was one that Fenton couldn't quite make out as the goose gave him a side look. "Impressive. He tried getting me to stay with Donald once and even Donald drew the line at that."

Feeling particularly and uncharacteristically snarky, Fenton retorted, "I take it this is a common theme for you? Needing your uncle to find you places to stay?"

A dark look passed over Gladstone's face. Just when Fenton thought he was gonna yell something back at him in anger, Gladstone's dark narrowed eyes just looked away. "Whatever. Let's go see if the limo is ready yet."

Without another word, Gladstone left the room, leaving Fenton to wonder just who he was going to be dealing with for the near future.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()


End file.
